Critics of a local-option sales tax that Collier County commissioners narrowly agreed to put on the Nov. 6 ballot should begin spelling out their plan to meet the needs of future generations if the referendum fails.

Adding a seventh penny of sales tax per dollar for up to seven years isn’t just about who will be paying extra on what they purchase starting in 2019 until the $490 million maximum is collected. It’s not just about the 365,000 people living here now, but also investing in future generations.

Commissioners voted 3-2 on Tuesday to schedule the referendum, identifying how county government would spend $420 million collected starting Jan. 1, with another $70 million shared with cities.

Many of these public projects have been delayed since the Great Recession, like the $100 million Vanderbilt Beach Road eastward extension that has a $74 million shortfall or the $60 million Big Corkscrew Regional Park with a $40 million shortfall.

Others arose recently, such as a $25 million shortfall for hurricane resilience underscored by Hurricane Irma or a workforce training center, considering a major local employer instead chose South Carolina for a manufacturing plant creating 1,000 jobs.

Other spending proposals affect our quality of life, such as a better alternative than warehousing those with a mental illness in the county jail for lack of a better alternative or seeking a veterans nursing home that Collier deserved but didn’t get several years ago.

Our editorial board has urged that this go to referendum, including criticizing the Legislature for targeting Collier with a different standard than 61 of 67 counties have had to follow to consider a local sales tax referendum.

What our editorial board hasn’t done yet is take a position on the sales tax itself.

A better way?

Should our editorial board oppose it, we must be held to the same expectation as we’re going to hold Commissioners Bill McDaniel and Donna Fiala as well as any opposing group in the coming months. McDaniel and Fiala were the dissenting votes on letting this go to voters as proposed.

What’s our expectation for any referendum opponent? Don’t oppose the sales tax superficially by citing an objection to a couple of planned expenditures on the county’s list. Rather, go item by item and either state it doesn’t need to be done or should be paid for a different way, including identifying that alternative method.

The actual project shortfall far exceeds $490 million. The money must come from somewhere now or we kick the projects can down the road to future generations.

What are some money-raising alternatives to weigh?

• Borrow more without having the extra sales tax to help pay it back. County officials have estimated it adds $100 million in interest payments to take on extra long-term debt. That strategy also eliminates the 30 percent of sales tax proceeds visitors would ante up during the next seven years.

• Raise property taxes more than would have been required otherwise.

• Keep property taxes steady but identify, specifically, hundreds of millions of dollars of current spending to shift to projects on the county list.

• Just cutting property taxes means the money’s no longer collected, so that’s no answer to paying for anything on the list.

• Increase impact fees, one-time charges on new construction to help pay for growth. Collier has some of the highest impact fees in the state yet these only partially cover costs of growth.

• Impose a franchise fee on utility bills for residents of unincorporated Collier. Cities already collect these fees on electric bills and the like.